Universities as Embedded Knowledge Hubs and the Challenge of Local Development the Us Lessons and the Italian Case

This article discusses the claim of a new paradigm in the knowledge production and diffusion process, and the need to assess the regional and local implications of this modal shift. After introductory remarks included in the first part of the paper, its next section introduces the theme of localisation of knowledge as a source of regional development; section three examines the lessons we can extract from the US university system (with a particular regard to the case of Johns Hopkins University and the recent project for a biotech park in the city of Baltimore); in section four an illustration of the Italian University system leads to a description of the current evolution of the University of Bologna toward a new entrepreneurial role. The last part of the paper discusses the embedded role of universities in the light of the two cases presented in the previous sections and draws the conclusions in terms of regional policy

Post-automation: report from an international workshop

The purpose of this report is to share lessons from an international research workshop dedicated to post- automation. Twenty-seven researchers from eleven different countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, met at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University on 11-13 September 2019, where we discussed empirical research papers and explored post-automation in group activities. We write this report primarily for researchers, but also for activists and policy advisors looking for more imaginative approaches to governing technology, work and sustainability in society, compared to those dominant agendas adapting automatically to the interests behind automation. The report is structured as follows. Section two introduces the workshop topic and papers presented, and which leads into two related areas that became a focus for discussion. First, some challenges in the foundations of automation theory (section three). And second, post-automation as a more constructive proposition to the challenges of automation, and that is happening right now (section four). Section five summarises some key points arising from the workshop, based on empirical observations from the margins of digital technology development, and that give both a flavour of the workshop and help elaborate the post-automation proposition. Some analytical and strategic themes are discussed in section six. We conclude in section seven with proposals for a post-automation agenda

Transitioning urban water systems

Water managers acknowledge on a global scale that current practices are no longer sustainable and have an adverse impact on ecology (disruptions to the water cycle and habitats), public health (water qualities, sanitation services) and the economy (flooding, drought and overuse of resources). The idea of applying transitioning approaches stems from growing recognition that changes in water management are urgently needed. The SWITCH transitioning approach was developed by consolidating the project’s existing stakeholder engagement approach with ideas on transition knowledge, an emerging new field of science

How do multi-agency working and systems support children and families in accessing children’s centre provision? (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/040)

This project looked at multi-agency working and systems in an inner city Sure Start Children’s Centre and asked how this way of working supported children and families identified as needing family support in accessing the centre provision. The research was focused on issues facing practitioners, for example – what promoted and what blocked multi-agency team working, exploring systems on the ground. The research did not explore individual child or family outcomes. This qualitative study concentrated on one inner city neighbourhood children’s centre, located in an area with high levels of deprivation and an ethnically diverse community. Through a literature search of key texts, government and local policies and guidance, a link is made connecting current children’s centre policies around partnership working with wider regeneration programmes and social service reforms. It suggests that multiple policy aspirations at a national level impact on multi-agency working on the ground. The methodology included a series of one-to-one interviews with a small sample of staff involved in multi-agency working, a senior NHS manager, a Workforce Development Manager and children’s centre managers. In addition, a set of one-to-one interviews was conducted with a small sample of staff involved in multi-agency working in the specific children’s centre including the children’s centre manager leading on multiagency working, a family support worker, a health visitor and a centre based therapist. A cross-section of practitioners, at both strategic and local level, were interviewed. Drawing from their insights, and relating these on the ground experiences to the national programme for children’s centres, the study has tentatively identified some themes and findings related to multi-agency working, and which may have implications for wider practice in supporting children and families obtaining relevant services to meet their needs. The importance of team building, networking and sustaining the team was highlighted. Creating a culture of ‘who knows’, not ‘how high’; having clarity about ‘family support’; and understanding the potential for multi-agency meetings to have a perverse outcome, where other potential routes and options for families were neglected, were among the key findings